Cyril of Zographou

Holy Venerable Martyr Cyril of Zographou was one of the twenty-⁠six monks and lay workers of the Zographou monastery on the Holy Mountain who were killed by the Latins between 1274 and 1284 because they would not accept the union with Rome. The Azbyka page honours them all together.

In 1274 the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos made the union with Rome, but most of the monasteries on Athos resolutely refused to betray Orthodoxy and rebuked those who had. For this the Holy Mountain was struck by Latin armies and mercenaries, who killed many monks. Zographou, a monastery of the Bulgarians, was easier to reach, since the emperor did not want to estrange the Greeks and took out his anger on monasteries of other peoples.

The abbot Thomas learned in a miraculous way that the soldiers were drawing near and told the brethren: those who wished to escape should leave the monastery, and those who desired martyrdom should stay. Twenty-⁠six remained: the abbot Thomas, the monks Barsanuphius, Cyril, Michaiah, Simon, Hilarion, James, another James, Job, Cyprian, Sabbas, Martinian, Cosmas, Sergius, Mina, Joasaph, Ioannicius, Paul, Anthony, Euthymius, Dometian and Parthenius, and four lay workers whose names are unknown. They shut themselves in the monastery tower.

The Latin soldiers, on arriving, set the tower on fire. While it burned, the martyrs of Christ sang psalms and the akathist of the Mother of God, and so gave their souls to God on 10 October, in some year between 1274 and 1284.

Saint Cyril is commemorated on 4 July, in the new style, with the Synaxis of the Athonite Venerable Fathers.